


Ties

by Joking611



Series: Cari'ssi'mi Drabbles [50]
Category: Mass Effect, Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Angst, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 00:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11703312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joking611/pseuds/Joking611
Summary: Shepard and Aethyta run into difficulty in transit





	Ties

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge Yourself: A Month Of Fanfiction 2017
> 
> Thursday 8/3's Prompt: Family

Shepard awoke in her favorite circumstance, with her arms full of warm Asari.

She smiled, and did what she usually did in such an occasion, which was squeeze tightly.

 

“I never thought I’d hear myself saying this, but I find myself conflicted by the idea of my daughter’s bondmate grabbing my ass.”

Her heart lurching, Shepard’s eyes snapped open at the the sound of Aethyta’s voice as she practically threw the matriarch off her in reflex.

She looked around as she tried to get her bearings, finding herself on the deck of the shuttle she’d been traveling in with Liara’s father. She put her hand to the back of her head, feeling the lump there. “What happened? Where are we?” The smells of ozone and burnt electronics permeated the air.

Aethyta was already attempting to coax that information from the injured shuttle. “Sabotage, it looks like. Something triggered an overload in the eezo core, but the shuttle ejected it before it blew.” She looked from the controls to where the spectre still sat on the deck. “Your shuttle’s safeties saved us both.”

“Liara’s shuttle,” Shepard corrected with habit ingrained over years. She closed her eyes, trying to focus while ignoring the pain in her head. “No core means no mass effect systems. No FTL, no comm buoys. That’s bad.”

“No shit.”

“Do you have our position?”

“We’re adrift between relays in the Attis system, Aether cluster. We’re drifting in the general direction of the outer relay.”

“And no eezo core means no transit when we get to the relay,” Shepard mused.

“No thrusters means we aren’t getting to the relay anyway,” Aethyta added to the good news.

“No thrusters? Fuck.” Shepard lifted herself gingerly from the deck, and eased into the co-pilot’s seat with a hand from Aethyta. “What still works? Anything?”

Aethyta shot her a dirty look. “Life support obviously, which is a good thing because the only thing worse than being stuck in the ass end of nowhere is being at the ass end of nowhere in an environment suit.”

“Yah,” Shepard added bitterly. “I know a thing or two about being stuck in the middle of nowhere in an environment suit. It’s nothing I care to repeat.”

The Asari gave her a look that was almost sympathetic before she continued, “Looks like almost all of the secondary systems are fine. Short range communications, sensors, auxiliary power, even the escape pod if we want to go from fucked to really fucked.”

“You’re pissy for someone who should be happy to be alive,” Shepard lightly touched the lump on her head, wincing at the pain. “We’ll be fine. All we have to do is wait for pickup.”

“Athame’s blue ass kid, someone just tried to kill you and all you have to say is ‘We’ll be fine’?” Aethyta called up the forward projection. “What happens if whoever you pissed off comes back to finish the job?”

Shepard raised her voice despite the pain in her head. “Whoever I pissed off? How do you know they weren’t gunning for you?”

“I kill my enemies, kid,” Aethyta said flatly. “I don’t make nice and hope they remember me fondly.”

The spectre sat back, the wind removed from her sails. “Is that how you see me? Soft?”

“You aren’t soft kid, but you’ve got a blind spot the size of a fucking moon.” She waved her arm to take in the whole of the shuttle. “Some random colony thinks they saw a yahg, and the first thing you do is say ‘I’ll be right there’? This whole thing practically screamed trap.”

“Yahg means salarians, you know that. I had to check it out.” Her gaze hardened. “Besides, you’re here. If you think this was a big waste of time, why did you come?”

“To keep your ass alive, apparently.  You’re as bad as you were during the fucking war, jumping into the thick of things and counting on others to get you out.” Aethyta turned away, rage visible in her stance.

Shepard was on her feet in a heartbeat. “Counting on others? Do you know what I’ve been through? What I put myself through?” She grabbed Aethyta’s shoulder and spun her around. “I would have died for them. I DID die for them. You don’t get to judge me.”

She slapped Shepard’s hand away. “I damn well do get to judge you. You’d have dragged Liara into this if you could.”

The human finally looked away. “There was a parent teacher conference. One of us had to go.”

“One of us had to go,” Aethyta mocked. “One of you had to take care of your kid, and one of you had to take care of the galaxy. Why am I not surprised who ended up on which side of that equation?”

“If it means anything, I’m glad Liara isn’t here, OK? I don’t want her to get hurt, or for Asteria to grow up without a mother.” Shepard dropped limply back into her seat. “But someone also has to follow up on leads like this.” She looked up at Aethyta. “And I felt better that you were coming,” she admitted. ”That you had my back.”

Aethyta rolled her eyes. “Asteria shouldn’t grow up without a father either. That’s something that _I_ know a thing or two about.”

Shepard turned away, finding herself facing the blown out console in front of the co-pilot’s seat. “What happened here?”

“It exploded when the core went.”

“But I was on the…” Shepard put two and two together. “You pulled me out of the way.” She turned back to Aethyta for confirmation, receiving only a nod.

“I could have been killed,” she said in sudden realization. “ _That’s_ why you’re so pissed. I almost cost Liara a bondmate.”

Aethyta slumped into the pilot’s chair. “No.” She turned away from the human. “You almost cost me a daughter.”


End file.
